TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION

Technical communication is a method of researching and creating information about technical processes or products directed to an audience through media. The information must be relevant to the intended audience. Technical communicators often work collaboratively to create products (deliverables) for various media, including paper, video, and the Internet. Deliverables include online help, user manuals, technical manuals, white papers, specifications, process and procedure manuals, industrial videos,reference cards, data sheets, journal articles, patents, training, business papers, technical reports, and forms and documents. Technical communication is sometimes considered a professional task for which organizations either hire specialized employees, or outsource their needs to communication firms. For example, a professional writer may work with a company to produce a user manual. Other times, technical communication is regarded as a responsibility that technical professionals employ on a daily basis as they work to convey technical information to coworkers and clients. For example, a computer scientist may need to provide software documentation to fellow programmers or clients.

Technical communication is important to engineers mainly for the purpose of being professional and accurate. These reports supply specific information in a concise manner and are very clear in their meaning if done correctly.

TECHNICAL WRITING
The technical writing process can be divided into five steps: 1. Determine purpose and audience 2. Collect information 3. Organize and outline information 4. Write the first draft 5. Revise and edit

All technical communication is done with a particular end in mind. The purpose is usually to facilitate the communication of ideas and concepts to the audience, but may sometimes be used to direct the audience in a particular course of action. The importance of the audience is in the notion that meaning is derived from the audience's interpretation of a piece of work. The purpose may be something as simple as having the audience understand the details of some technological system, or to take a particular action . The identification of the audience affects many aspects of communication, from word selection and graphics usage to style and organization. A non-technical audience might not understand, or worse, not even read a document that is heavy with jargon, while a technical audience might crave extra detail because it is critical for their work.

Examples: In Government: Technical communication in the government is very particular and detailed. Depending on the particular segment of the government (and not to mention the particular country), the government component must follow distinct specifications. In the case of the US Army, the MIL-spec (Military specification) is used. It is updated continuously and technical communications (in the form of Technical Manuals, Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals, Technical Bulletins, etc.) must be updated as well.

COLLECTING INFORMATION
Information may be collected through primary research, where the technical communicator conducts research first-hand, and secondary research, where work published by another person is used as an information source. The technical communicator must acknowledge all sources used to produce his or her work. To ensure that this is done, the technical communicator should distinguish quotations, paraphrases, and summaries when taking notes.

Organizing and outlining information

Before writing the initial draft, all the ideas are organized in a way that will make the document flow nicely. A good way of doing this is to write all random thoughts down on a paper, and then circle all main sections, connect the main sections to supporting ideas with lines, and delete all irrelevant material. Once each idea is organized, the writer can then organize the document as a whole. This can be accomplished in various ways:

Chronological: This is used for documents that involve a linear process, such as a step-by-step guide describing how to accomplish something. Parts of an object: Used for documents which describe the parts of an object, such as a graphic showing the parts of a computer (keyboard, monitor, mouse, etc.) Simple to Complex (or vice versa): Starts with the easy-to-understand ideas, and gradually goes deeper into complex ideas. Specific to General: Starts with many ideas, and then organizes the ideas into subcategories. General to Specific: Starts with a few categories of ideas, and then goes deeper.

Once the whole document is organized, it's a good idea to create a final outline, which will show all the ideas in an easy-to-understand document. Creating an outline makes the entire writing process much easier and will save the author time.

Writing the first draft

The goal is to write down ideas from the outline as quickly as possible. Setting aside blocks of one hour or more, in a place free of distractions, will help the writer maintain a flow. Also, the writer should wait until the draft is complete to do any revising; stopping to revise at this stage will break the writer's flow. The writer should start with the section that is easiest for them, and write the summary only after the body is drafted. The ABC (Abstract, Body, and Conclusion) format can be used when writing a first draft. The Abstract describes the subject to be written about, so that the reader knows what he or she is going to be told in the document. The Body is the majority of the paper, in which the topics are covered in depth. Lastly, the Conclusion section restates the main topics of the paper. The ABC format can also be applied to individual paragraphs, beginning with a topic sentence that clearly states the paragraph's topic. This is followed by the topic, and finally, the paragraph closes with a concluding sentence.

Revising and editing

Once the initial draft is laid out, editing and revising can be done to fine-tune the draft into a final copy. Four tasks transform the early draft into its final form.

Adjusting and reorganizing content

During this step, the draft is revisited to 1) focus or elaborate on certain topics which deserve more attention, 2) shorten other sections, and 3) shift around certain paragraphs, sentences, or entire topics.

Editing for style

Good style makes the writing more interesting, appealing, or readable. In general the personal writing style of the writer will not be evident in technical writing. Some changes are made by choice, not for correctness, and may include:

adding headings, lists, graphics changing passive-voice sentences to an active voice defining terminology rearranging paragraphs shortening paragraphs shortening sentences

Technical writing is a discipline that usually requires a technical writer to make particular use of a style guide. These guides may relate to a specific project, product, company or brand and in general they ensure that technical writing is devoid of a personal style.

Editing for grammar

At this point, the document can be checked for grammatical errors, such as comma usage and common word confusions (for example, there/their/they're etc).

Edit for context

Determining the necessary amount of context is important. There needs to be a balance between exuberance, which may lead the audience to take unintended additional meaning from the text, and terseness, which may leave the audience unable to interpret meaning because of missing words.